The New York Times > Week in Review > The Struggle Over the Torture Memos

The New York Times > Week in Review > The Struggle Over the Torture Memos:
"According to John Yoo, the former Bush administration official who wrote some of the most controversial torture memos, the call for openness has already inhibited candid deliberation within the Justice Department. He also fears that too much disclosure might tip off the enemy and discourage the executive from considering aggressive measures in the war on terror.

'Would you want the government to have open discussions about whether we could legitimately assassinate Osama bin Laden, and what rules you'd have to follow?' asked Mr. Yoo, who teaches law at the University of California at Berkeley. 'Suppose it was disclosed that the government concluded that you couldn't attack Osama in a civilian's house. You would be telling the other side what to avoid.'

Legal scholars who call for the release of unpublished memos insist that the Bush administration should be held to higher standards of disclosure than its predecessors because of the aggressiveness of its legal claims. 'The more the president claims a power of extraordinary policy making which is liberated from the normal operations of checks and balances, the more he has to be publicly accountable,' said Bruce Ackerman of Yale Law School."

I think we can and should discuss assasinating Bin Laden. We don't need to discuss means and conditions, but whether or not he's a worthwhile target. Al Ingram

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/weekinreview/15rose.html